PODCAST

March 2nd, 2015

The Sunday School teacher, my first ever, knew how to get the attention of seven-year-old boys. None of us knew Bible stories during those first weeks at a rented house church. So Miss Barreto would dramatize her lessons, making them unforgettable. To illustrate Genesis 22, she brought a rope, a kitchen knife and some crude rocks.

She wanted a volunteer to play Isaac’s role. No takers. Then, she decided to name one. I was about to flee when the teacher’s icy look froze me to the chair. Terrorized, we imagined Abraham’s every move: his teary eyes, gusts of wind tossing his white hair around . . . and that knife, growing larger and larger, distorted as it approached the child’s chest. Shut your eyes . . . now! He is about to strike.

It never happened. God’s voice stopped the nightmare. The test was over. A lifelong dream was not going to die. Abraham received his graduation diploma, earned in the school of faith. And Isaac learned that faith overcomes fear and provides deliverance.